Cap-feeding mechanism.



O. C. PAGE.

GAP FBBDING MBGHANISM.

APPLIcATIoN HLBD JULY 24, 1907. i

Patellted Mar. 29, 1910.

3 SHETB-BHEET 2.

G. O. PAGE.

GAP FEDING MEOHANISM. APPLICATION PILED JULY 24, 1907. 953,056, Patentea Mar.29,191o.

' 8 BHBTB-SHE'I' 3.

sion of such articles with shaped sides ual articles may be presented UNITED' sTAfrEs igENT OFFICE.

CLARENCE C. PAGE, OF WOODSTOCK, OREGON, ASSIGNOR T0 TUBULAR B'IVET & STUD COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETT S, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

CAP-FEEDING MECHANISM.

specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 29, 1910.

Application filed July 2-4, 1907. Serial No. 385,265.

To all 'whom it 'may concem:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE C. PAGE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Woodstock, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cap-Feeding Mechanism; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to feeding devices for handling articles which are differently shaped on opposite sides, and its primary object is to automatically supply a succesthe similarly similarly faced so that individin uniform rc- 'lation to devices for further handling or acting upon them.

The invention may be employed to advan- `-tage in handling various articles whichA are 'w ditferently shapedon opposite sides and 'Iqsame way; iIt may be used 1 "va'ntage 1n feeding articleshavlng ajiflat or {'ge'nerally discoidal lform fwhi'ch it is desired to .present finl succession zwith the similarly shaped sidles facing the withspecial adshaped'peripheral edgles,-andis well adapted 'for -use 1n2 feeding' rrvet capssuch ,as are commonly secured lto the end of rivetsin setting them in the materiah 'nation of theinvention, the various features. w thereof will-bedescribed in .connection lwith *1a inechal'lisn-i. specia'lly 'designed v`for han- 'dling such 'rivet caps. f "ln 'cur'e caps upon been customhry l-'i'vet ;setting machines j adapted :to sethe ends of the rivets, it has heretofore to manually place tlie'zcapsfnpon the l'setting anvil, and the i rapidity with 'which the. machines have .been

in a great measure upon `the'fe'q'ierience `and dexterity of the operator. vBy the present invention a .feed- I i mechanism is provided 'which may v,be i combined lwith the setting devices and which l z will operate to automaticallyfeed the rivet caps to the setting device, thusenabling the n'iachine to be run at a higher rate of speed than i heretofore, and; .also insuringI the proper presenting of the capsto the setting devices without any skillbr care on the part of the operator.

Tu accordance with one of the principal features of the invention, the rivetcaps or with i similarly In further. expla ,mechanisnr 1. above-re erred to, .similarly, facedV articles in the series being `fed will| bedirectel `tone of, which reverses 4thrmgh it vand returns` them VVto f the' same other articles to be handled are fed in a series in which some of the articles may face one way and some another, and this` series is acted upon by devices 'which arrange the articles in the series so that the similarly shaped sides of the articles are faced the same way, the successive articles being thus presented in the same relation so that they may be rapidly and accurately delivered to the setting devices or other devices for handling or acting upon them.

In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the articles are fed in a series in which they may be dissimilarly faced, and those artlcles which face the same way 'are directed through the same path, while those articles which face the opposite way are directed out of this path. In practicing this feature of the invention the articles which are directed out of the path referred to may be discharged from the feeding y These articles are, however, all faced thesame way, and they may be presented in, succession to settingdevices or other devicesfor acting thereon. This feature 'of the invention may bc, futilized in practicin r the first feature 'of'the invention and inysuch case the disthroughdifferent ipaths, 'the articles passi'ng path with theotherlarticlesz ln embodyingxthefeaturesabove referred to iu a simpleand. etiicient form of mechanismhwhich iywell `adaptedfor 1Operating upon rivet caps, I have employed certain further featuresof invention which, while tliey'.a1'e notfessential to thebroaderifca- `tnres, are of importance in contributing to the etficient operation of the mechanisin and the simplicity of itsconstrnction. p

The various features `lof |theinvention will be understood fromlan inspection of the accompanying drawings and the following detailedidescription of the specific mechanlsm shown therein.

In'th'ese' (h'awings Figure 1 is a front elevation partly i'n .section of a mechamsin adapted for feeding ri'vet caps and embodying the various features of the invention in the forms in which I prefer to employ them; Fig. 2 is an elevation partly in section'looking toward the le ft in Fig. 1; Fig;3 is a partial front elevation with the'front plate removed, partly in section, the front plate being removed to show the arrangement of the guidew'ays through which the caps are fed;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional view through p from that shown in Figs. 8 to 17; and Fig.

' movement at suitable intervals.

19 is a detail showing a part of the mechanism. adapted to act upon this different form of cap.

In the mechanism shown in the drawings the caps which are to be fed and presented with the similarly shaped sides facing in the same direction are carried en masse in a hopper 1. Projecting from the inner face of this hopper is a downwardly sloping annular 'plate 2 which directs the caps against outwardly sloping defiector surfaces 3. The deflecting surfaces 3 are concaved and are circularly arranged so that they form a substantial conical defiector for defiecting the caps into the annular space between the inner surface of the hopper and the outer surface of the cylinder.l The annular space 5 thus formed between the cylinder 4 and inner surface of the hopper is snficiently wide to freely receive the caps and the cylinder is provided with a flange 6 having an inclined upper surface 'which forms a ledge at the bottom of the recess 5 and sup orts the caps on ed e within said space. T e upper surface of t e flange 6 slopes downwardly from oneside of the cylinder 4 in o posite direct-ionand on the opposite side ofthecylinder the flange is cut away at 7 to form an opening between the ends of the flange through. which the caps which slide or roll down the'inclined upper edge of the flange, may pass. The opening registers with anopening 8 formed in the plate 9 on which the hop er 1 is supported, the opening 8 being o the proper size to allow a single cap to pass freely through it. The opening 8 registers with and forms a part of a guideway 10 which extends vertically downward from the bottom of the hopper 1.

In order to agitate the caps within the hopper and to cause them to pass down over the defiectors 2 and 3 and into the annular recess. 5, and also to cause the caps which are thus directed into-the recess to be directed one after another into the opening 8 as the caps within the guideway 10 are removed, the cylinder 4 is given an oscillating movement and also a Vertical reciprocating For this purpose the cylinder is secured or formed on the upper end of a shaft 11 journaled in i the plate 9 and in a plate 12 on the supporting standard 13. The shaft 11 is provided with'a laterally projecting arm 14 carrying a pin at its outer end whlch. engages a cam groove 15 formed in a drum 16 which is secured to the rotary Operating shaft 17. A s ring 18 is interposed between the hub of tiie arm 14 and the plate 9 and tends to hold the bottom of the cylinder 4 against the surface of the plate 9. secured in the plate 9 with its upper end projecting above the surface of the plate and arranged to play within a. recess 20 formed in the under surface of'the cylinder 4. In the center of this recess 20 a V-shaped (la-m 21 is secured and arranged so that its lower end is substantially vflush with the under surface of the cylinder. As the shaft 17 revolves the shaft 11 and the attached cylinder 4 are oscillated by the cam 15, and during each oscillation the cylinder is raised and lowered as the V-shaped cam 21 rides over the V-shaped cam 19. v

The caps 22 which the machine shown is designed to operate upon are discoidal in Shape, as indica-ted in Figs. 8 to 17 one side of the cap presenting a fiat plane surface and the other side of the cap being recessed to receive the end of the rivet, and being provided with a spherical spreading surface 23 and an inwardly projecting flange 24.' The periphery of the caps curves from approximately the center and merges With the sides so that the peri heral edges of the caps are similarly shapedi The caps which are delivered from the hopper into the' guideway 10 may be delivered either with the flat side lfacing outward or the .recessed side facing outward and :therefore the series of caps which are delivered to this guideway and which are fed down the guideway by their own weight will be dissimilarly faced. In' order that these caps may be properly presented to the setting devices those caps which are faced in the wrong direction must be removed 'from' the feeding mechanism or they must be reversed so that they Will face in the proper direction. In the mechanism shown devices are provided which operate to reverse those capswhich are improperly faced, so that all the caps in the series delivered to and fed through the are presented with the recesse in the same direction. Certain of these devices might however be employed in case it was desired to discharge the caps which were faced in the wrong direction or to feed one series of caps to one mechanism and another series of caps to another mechanism. The series of caps delivered into the guideway 10 are transferred from this guideway to a second guideway 25 by devices which act to arrange the series of caps so that they all face in 'the same direction so that the series of caps in the guideway 25 may be (guideway 10 A V-shaped cam 19 is side facmgl presented successively to rvet and cap setting devices in any suitable manner.

The lower end ofthe guideway 10 communicates throu h' an opening 26 with a circular raceway 2 formed in the front face of the standard 13 in which the guideways and 25 are formed. The opening 2G extends' from the side of `the guideway 10 into .the side of the eircular raceway 27 at its 10 entrance end and the delivery end of the raceway re isters with and forms a continuation o the guideway 25, the entrance i and exit ends of'the raceway being separated by a dividing wall 28. Individual caps are separated from the series of caps in the guideway 10 and delivered into the raceway 27 by means of a Separator 29 formed on the upper end of a lever 30 which is pivoted at 31 to the standard 13. The separator lever is held normally ,in position with t-he Separator across the lower end of the guideway 10 by a spring 32. The separator lever is provided with an arm 33 a'r- I ranged in the path of a series of cams 34 which aresecured to the periphery of a cylinder 35. The cylinder 35 is formed on the shaft 17- and the 'inner face of the cylinder overlies the raceway 27 and forms the front wall of said raceway. As the shaft 17 revolves the cams 34 strike against the arm 33 of the separator lever, swinging the separator 29 back so that its front end passes from under the series of caps in the guideway 10, thus allowing the caps to feed down the guideway, the lowermost cap passing in front of the Separator and into position to pass through the opening 26 into the raceway 27. When the cam 34 disengages the arm 33 the Separator 29 is moved forward under the tension of the spring 32, thus forcing the lowermost cap into the raceway 27, the upper surface of the Separator passing beneath the next higher cap in the guideway 10 and sup'porting the series of caps in the guideway.4 The cap thus fed into the raceway 27 is carried forward by one of a i series of feeding fingers 36 projecting from the inner face of the cylinder 35 across the raceway 27 and into an annular groove 37 formed in the rear wall of the raceway. The number of feeding fingers 36 is the same as the number of cams 34 on the cylinder 35 and the feeding fingers are'so arranged with relation to the cams-that the caps are de- `livered by the Separator 29 directly in front of the feeding fingers. If the cap delivered from the series in the guideway 10 into the raceway 27 has the recessed side facing the front plate 38 which covers the guideways 060 10 and 25, it is carried around the raceway 27 by one of the fingers 3G and is added to the series of caps within the guideway 25. If the cap is faced the opposite way, however. so that the flat side of the cap is out- Ward, it is detlected out of the raceway 27 by one of a series of defiector plungers 39 which are' inounted in the cylinder 35. These defiector pluugers consist of pins lnounted :in the cylinder iarallel `to the axis of the cylinder and held by Springs 40 in retracted position with their front ends substantially flush with the front face of the cylinder. The rear ends of the defiector pins project from the rear face of the cylinder 35 in position to be advanced at the proper time by a cam 41. VVhen a cap is deflected from the raceway 27 it is directed into av second raceway or guideway 42 which is formed' at the rear of the'raceway 27 The guideway 42 branches off from the raceway 27 at 43, twists through an angle of 180 and returns to the raceway 27 at the point 44. At the'entrance end of the guideway 43 the outer ortion of the rear wall of the raceway 27 1s formed by a spring-pressed bridge piece 45 which is pivoted at 46 so that it may move outward when the cap passing over it is forced rearwardly, and thus allow the cap to be deflected into the` guideway 43. The cam 41 which advances the defiector pins 39 is arranged in such position that the defiector pins are advanced as they pass in front of the bridge piece 45. If the cap which is in front of the defiector pin at the time it is advanced is so faced that the recess side of the cap faces the end of the deflector pin, then the end of the defiector pin enters the recess in the cap and does not tend to defiect. the cap out of the raceway 27, Fig. 14. The ends of the defiector pins may be recessed as shown at 47 to fit over the convex surface 23 of the cap. If the cap which is in front of the defiector pin is so faced that its flat side is facing the defiector pin, then when the pin is advanced it will strike the flat face of the cap, deflecting the cap into the inclined position indicatcd in Fig. 9, the bridge piece 45 yielding to allow the outer edge of the cap to swing rearwardly so that as the cap is advanced by the feeding finger 30 it will pass into the guideway 43 and be carried around said guldeway by the finger 30.

As the cap is carried around this guidcway it will be gradually turned through an angle of 180 as indicated in Figs. 9 to 12, and will thus be reversed and returned to the raceway 27 with its recessed side facing out- Ward. Thus the series of caps fcd down the guideway 10 will be automatically arranged with their similarly shaped sides similarly faced and be fed along the guideway 25, from which they may bc directed to the Sctting devices.

For convenience in ,constructinr the reversing guideway 43 and gate 45` t ie guidcway 43 is formed in and the gate 45 mounted on an annular ring 48. This ring is substantially semicircular in cross-section, and is mounted within a recess formed in thel standard 13, the front face of the ring' furming the rear wall of the raceway 27. The dividing wall 28 between the entrance and exit ends of the raceway 27 is also conveniently formed on the front face of this ring.

The caps may be retained in the guideway 10 when the Separator plate 29 is withdrawn byl a spring retaining finger 4:9, the laterally projecting end of which normally lies across the o ening 26 between the lower end of the gui' eway 10 and the entrance end of the raceway 27. This spring retaining finger yields to allow the passage of the caps when pushed forward by the Separator plate 29 as indicated in Figs. 8 and '13..

The same construction whichhas been described may be utilized for handling the form of caps indicated in Fig. 18 by replacing the defiector plungers 39 with defiector plungers having their front ends formed to enter the concave recess 50 which is formed in the back of the cap. Such a plunger is indicated at 51 in Fig. 19. In case the mechanism is provided with a' plunger such as shown at 51 and capsxsuch as shown at Fig. 18 are placed in the hopper, the caps which enter the raceway .'27 with the recess 50 facing the ends of the plungers 51 will not be defiected out of the raceway 27, while those caps which are oppositely faced when they enter the racewayl 27 will' be defiected by the plungers into the revers-y` ing guideway 43 and will be reversed and delivered to the guideway 25 faced the same way that the caps which pass through the raceway 27 are faced. i

The specific'form and arrangement of the parts of the mechanism may be modified or changed to suit the particular form and shape of the articles being handled, or other forms and arrangements of devices may be employed in practicing the broader features of the invention.

Having explained the nature and Object of the invention and described in detail one form of mechanism in which it may be embodied, what I claim is:

1. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, devices for feeding a series of artic'les having diiferently shaped sides and the peripheral edges of opposite sides similarly shaped and movable devices for directing dissimilarly faced articles into different paths', substantially as described. w

2. A feeding mechanism, having, in com'- bination, devices for feeding a series of articles having difierently shaped sides and the peripheral edges of opposite sides similarly shaped and devices for directin dissimilarly faced articles through di erent paths, one of which reverses the articles passing therethrough and returns them to the same path with the other articles, substantially as described.

3. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, two guideways for guiding articles having differen'tly shaped sides and the peripheral edges of opposite sides similarly shaped and devices receiving the dissimilarly faced articles from one guideway and delivering them to the other guideway with the similarly shaped sides similarly faced, substantially as described.

4. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, devices for feeding a series of articles having difierently shaped 'sides and the peripheral edges of opposite sides similarly shaped and movable devices for directing the articles which are faced in one way through the same path and for defiecting the articles which are faced the opposite way out of said path, substantially as described.

5. A feeding mechanism` for discoidal articles, having, in combination, a cylindrical hopper, aninwardly inclined annular deflector plate within the hopper, a cylinder within the hopper4 separated from the inner face thereof a distance approximately equal to the thickness of the articles, a conical deflecting surface on the upper end of the cylinder and an inclined /ledge forming the bottom of the recess between the cylinder and hopper, substantially as described.

6. A feeding mechanism for discoidal articles, having, in combination, a guideway, a hopper, means'for directing individual articles from the hopper into the guideway, a raceway communicating with the delivery end of the guideway, a reversing branch guideway communicating with the raceway, means for engaging and feeding the articles which *are faced in the'same way through the raceway, and means for deflecting the articles which are faced in the opposite way into the reversing guideway, substantially as described.

7. A feeding mechanism, having, in com- .bination, devices for feeding a series of articles having differently shaped sides, a raceway to which said articles are delivered, a feeding finger for advancing the articles through the raceway, a guideway leading from the raceway, and means for deflecting articles which are faced one way into said guideway, substantially as described.

8. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, a raceway to which articles having diflferently shaped sides are delivered, a guideway branching off from said raceway,

a yielding bridge piece arrangedto support one edge of the articles at the entra'nce of the guideway, a feeding device'ffor advancing the articles through the raceway, and a defiector constructed to deflect only those articles which are faced a certain Way, substantially as described.

9. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, a guideway, a raceway communicating with the end of the guideway, a separator for delivering individual articles from the guideway into the raceway, a feed- 1320 ing device for advancing the articles through the raceway, a second gnideway to which the raccway delivers, a reversing guideway branching off from the raceway and returning thereto, and a deflector arranged and operated to direct only those articles into the reversing guideway that are faced a certain way, substantially as described.

10. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, two guideways, two intermediate guideways merging therewith and adapted to receive articles from one of said guideways faced in opposite directions and deliver them to the other of said guideways faced in the same direction, and means for feeding articles in snccession from one of said guideways through the intermediate guideways to the other of the gnideways, substantially as described.

11. A feeding mechanism, havinfi', in combination, two guideways for guiding articles having difierently shaped sides and devices receiving the dissimilarly faced articles in snccession from one gnideway and delivering them in the same succession. to the other gnideway with the similarly shaped sides similarly faced, substantially as described.

19,. A feeding mechanism having, 'in combination, two gnideways adapted to receive dissimilarly faced articles and deliver them similarly faced, and means for engaging and feeding articles in succession through said guideways and directing the eorrespondingly faced articles through the same guideway, substantially as described.

18. Afeeding mechanism having, in combination, a raceway adapted to receive articles dissimilarly faced, a branch guideway leading from said raceway, a defiector constructed to deflect only those articles which are faced a certain way into the branch guideway, and means for operating the deflector, substantiallyl as described.

let. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, a raceway adapted to receive dissimilarly faced articles, a branch guideway commnnicating with the raceway, a detlec'tor constructed to detlect only those articles which are faced a c-ertain way, and means for moving the deflector toward the face of the articles when in register with the entrance to the branch guideway, substantially as described.

15. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, a raceway adapted to receive dissimilarly faced articles, a branch guideway communicating therewith, means for feeding articles through the raceway and guideway, and deflecting devices constructed to operate upon one face only of the articles, and means for Operating the `deflecting devices as the articles re0ister with the entrance to the branch guideway, substantially as described.

16. A feedinI mechanism, having, in combination, a gui eway adapted to receive oppositely faced discoidal articles, two guideways branching therefrom, means for directing those articles faced one way into one of said latter guideways, and laterally moving deflector means shaped to deflect only those articles faced the opposite way into the other guideway, substantially as de-V scribed.

17. A feedm' mechanism, having, m combination, two iverging guideways adapted to ide discoidal articles, deflecting devices an means for Operating the deflecting devices to selectively direct articles into the respective O'uideways according to the way they are faced as they come to the junctnre of the guideways, substantially as described.

18. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, a feeding guideway, a delivery guideway communicatmg therewith through two gniding passages adapted to receive articles from the feeding guideway faced opposite ways and deliver them to the delivery uideway faced the same Way, deflecting evices and means for Operating the deflecting devices to selectively direct articles into the respect-ive guideways according to the way they are faced as they come to the j nncture of the guiding passages, substantially as described.

19. A feeding mechanism for discoidal articles, having, m combination, a guideway,

a hopper from which the articles are directed into the guideway faced cpposite ways, a raceway communicating With the delivery end of the guideway, a branch guideway commnnicating with the raceway, and laterally moving means for selectively devfiecting only those articles which are facedl one way into the branch guideway, substantially as described.-

20. A feeding mechanism for discoidal articles, having, in combination, a hopper, a guideway into which the articles are delivercd from the hopper facing opposite ways, a raccway communicating withl the delivery end of the guideway, a twlsted branch guideway leading from and retm'ning to the raceway, and laterally moving deflecting means selectively coperating with the faces of the articles to deflect only those articles which are faced one way into the twisted guideway, substantially as described.

21. A feeding mechanism, having, in vcombination, a raccway adapted to' receive dissimilarly faced articles having differently shaped sidcs, a branch guideway leadino' from the raceway, deflecting devices anc means for Operating the devices to selectively defiect only those articles which are faced a certain way into the branch guideway, substantially as described.

22. A feeding mechanism, having, in combination, devices for feeding a series of articles having dfi'erently sha'ped sides, and

` means including a movable selective device for delivering the articles With similarly shaped sides similarly faced, substantially as descrbed. v 23. A feeding mecha'nism, having, in combination, a guideway adapted to receive dissimilarly faced articles, and a movab'le selective device constructed to operate upon the faceof the articles and to deflect out of the guideway only those articles which are faced 'a certain Way, substantially as described.v

24. A feeding mechanism, having, in com- I bination, a guideway adapted to receive'dis- 11 1 similarly faced articles, an opening lin' said guideway, means for Vfeeding articles through the guideway, and movable deflecting devices selectvely coperating With the faces of the articles for defiecting through said opening only those articles faced a certain Way, substantially as described. f

. In testimony whereof I afi'ix my signature,

1n presence of two Witnesses.

` CLARENCE C. PAGE.

Wtnesses: 1

JOHN A. J EFFREY, CLINTON A. AMBRosE. 

